Jalapeño: Hot stuff!

Welcome, class, to today's Fresh Pick: JALAPEÑO

Named after Jalapa, the capital of Veracruz, Mexico, these smooth, dark green (scarlet red when ripe) chiles range from hot to very hot. They have a rounded tip and are about 2 inches long and 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter. Besides their flavor, jalapeños [hah-lah-PEH-nyohs] are quite popular because they're so easily seeded (the seeds and veins are extremely hot). They're available fresh and canned and are used in a variety of sauces, sometimes stuffed with cheese, fish or meat, and in a multitude of dishes. In their dried form, jalapeños are known as chipotles. America’s favorite chile pepper is by far the jalapeño, which is milder than its cousin, the serrano.

The spiciness in the jalapeño comes from a compound called capsaicin that is found in all hot peppers. Interestingly enough, capsaicin is found in no other plant than the chile pepper. A single drop of this substance combined with 100,000 parts water is still noticeably spicy. Capsaicin itself is tasteless and odorless and is produced by the glands in the chile pepper’s placenta (ew, yes, the placenta), found at the top portion of the pepper below the stem.

NOTE: The placenta is about sixteen times hotter than the rest of the pepper and is usually removed along with the seeds (another hot part of the pepper) when preparing food. If you’re looking for a good kick with your dishes, leave it in along with the seeds. Additionally, when handling chile peppers, you should always wear rubber gloves to avoid contact with the pepper oils. The oils can cause a burning sensation on the skin.

For some great recipes, click here or here or try this great party dish:

1 14 oz bag extra thick tortilla chips
3 cups refried beans
3 cups cheddar cheese, grated
4 jalapeño peppers, sliced

Preheat oven to 350°F. Arrange a layer of tortilla chips along the bottom of a wide, shallow baking pan. If possible, use a baking pan that also can be used as a serving pan, such as a ceramic platter. Spread the refried beans over the chips. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top of chips and beans. Sprinkle slices of jalapeño peppers over the cheese. Bake in oven for 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Serve with dollops of salsa, sour cream, and/or guacamole. Top with chopped cilantro to be extra fancy.

Serves 8.

Aw, honey, honey!

Welcome, class, to today's Fresh Pick: HONEY

Honey is a thick, sweet liquid made by bees from flower nectar. When a honey bee takes nectar from a flower, it stores it in a "honey sack." When this honey sack is full, it returns to the hive, deposits the drop of nectar into the honeycomb, and evaporates the water out of the nectar by fanning its wings. Once the honey has aged, wax is used to seal it in the comb, which keeps it clean and safe.

Some facts about honeybees:
*A honeybee makes 154 trips for one teaspoon of honey.
*A colony produces 60 to 100 pounds of honey a year.
*To gather a pound of honey, a bee flies a distance equal to more than three times around the world. It takes two million flowers to make one pound of honey.

Contrary to what many people think, a honey's color and flavor does not derive from the bee, but from the nectar's source. In general, the darker the color, the stronger the flavor. There are hundreds of different honeys throughout the world, most of them named for the flower from which they originate. The flowers that produce some of America's most popular honeys are clover, orange blossom and sage. Other honeys, some of which are only available in limited quantities in the region from which they originate, come from the following blossoms: alfalfa, buckwheat, dandelion, heather, linden, raspberry, spearmint and thyme, just to name a few.

When using honey in cooking, it's important to know its source — buckwheat honey, for example, has far too strong a flavor to be used in a recipe that calls for orange blossom honey, which has a light, delicate fragrance and flavor. Honey comes in three basic forms: comb honey, with the liquid still in the chewy comb, both of which are edible; chunk-style honey, which is honey with pieces of the honeycomb included in the jar; and regular liquid honey that has been extracted from the comb, much of which has been pasteurized to help prevent crystallization. Other honey products such as honey butters, honey spreads and whipped honey are available at most supermarkets.

Store tightly sealed liquid honey in a cool, dry place for up to a year; store comb and chunk honey for 6 months. When refrigerated, honey crystallizes, forming a gooey, grainy mass. It can easily be reliquefied by placing the opened jar either in a microwave oven at 100 percent power for about 30 seconds (depending on the amount), or in a pan of hot water over low heat for 10 to 15 minutes.

Honey is widely used as a bread spread and as a sweetener and flavoring agent for baked goods, liquids (such as tea), desserts and in some cases savory dishes like honey-glazed ham or carrots.

Check out The National Honey Board for more nifty information about honey.

NOTE: Honey, corn syrup, and other natural sweeteners are a potential threat to infants. Since an infant's digestive excretions are non-acidic, ingestion of honey creates an ideal medium for botulinum endospores to grow and produce sufficient levels of toxins to cause infant botulism. For this reason, it is advised that neither honey, nor any other sweetener, be given to children under the age of 18 months. Once a child is eating solid food, the stomach produces enough gastric acid to prevent the germination of the endospores.

For some great recipes, click here or here or try this simple dish:

1 lb chicken tenders
Salt & pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 c. yellow or Dijon mustard
1/4 c. honey

Salt & pepper both sides of chicken tenders. Sauté chicken lightly in olive oil over medium high heat (about 4 minutes per side). Stir in mustard and honey to coat chicken and continue to cook another 2-3 minutes until chicken is no longer pink inside. Serve with buttered noodles and a side salad.

UPDATE: This just in from RealAge.com's Tip of the Day.